In order to protect the leg portions of an occupant from an impact at the time of collision of a vehicle or the like, on a floor on an inner side of a vehicle compartment, a pad for absorbing an impact on leg portions is generally placed under occupant foot portions in the front side of the floor, and a floor spacer for a vehicle constituted of the pad for absorbing an impact on leg portions and a horizontal pad which is placed on the floor behind it is generally placed.
For the above described pad for absorbing an impact on leg portions, various developments and improvements have been made so far from the viewpoint of enhancing its impact absorbing performance. One example of it includes the pad for absorbing an impact on leg portions which has been invented as a result of the earnest study by the applicants, (see Patent Document 1). The pad for absorbing an impact on leg portions is constituted of two regions that are an inclined portion and a horizontal portion, the two regions are divided by a ridge provided to extend in a width direction of a vehicle, and a plurality of longitudinally longer recessed grooves (ridges) which are provided to extend in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle are provided in both the inclined portion and the horizontal portion. Much energy can be absorbed in a short time by the recessed grooves being plastically deformed at the time of collision of the vehicle, and the impact load which acts on the leg portions of the occupant can be made less than the failure limit value.
Patent Document 1: JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2004-306791